Review by Tom D.

I have been using Corel Painter Essentials 5 to turn photos of our family, pets and places of interest around our local community into fun and interesting pieces of art now hanging on our walls (thanks to both PictureItOnCanvas and CanvasPeople… I use whichever service has the best sale going on at any one time).

My family now has six canvases of varying sizes and we are planning on creating more during an upcoming skiing trip all thanks to Corel Painter. The software’s tools are easy to use, but can be a bit daunting at first. I prefer to experiment and learn as I go.

Installation took longer than expected, about 20 minutes, but that could be because my iMac is 4 years old and does tend to run a bit slow lately. Once installed Corel Painter takes 350.2MB of space on my hard drive, which is on the large size for apps.

Corel Painter does not, in my view, replace photo editing software like Pixelmator or PhotoShop, but it is a fun and easy way for photo-editing amateur enthusiasts like me to create works of art. Two thumbs up for Corel Painter Essentials 5!